Can you imagine building and burying an entire life-size army of replica soldiers as part of your funeral arrangements? If you are not an ancient Chinese emperor, you probably cannot imagine it. But Qinshinhuang, the first emperor of a unified China, was sure he would need an army in the afterlife. So 2200 years ago his workers made this amazing army to serve him after his death. We visited the excavation site in Xi'an, his capital city. If you can barely see the terracotta warriors in the picture above because of the heads in the way, then you are getting the full experience as we had it-- shoving and peering around countless spectators (including one very cute redhead-- also from the Qin dynasty I am sure-- but she won't reveal her age)!
To see the 8th wonder of the world it was worth the crowds.
If it seems excessive to bury an entire life size army with each emporer-- evidently the Chinese came to agree. A few hundred years later they were still buring entire armies with their deceased emperors but they had reduced the size to about 18 inches tall. We visited a second tomb and saw the mini-terracotta warriors as well. They are all missing arms because the arms were made of wood and did not survive the centuries. They were buried in full sets of clothing but that also did not survive.
In the next photo we are enjoying a delicious meal at one of the best dumpling restaurants in Xi'an. The food in my chopsticks is lotus, not dumpling. It is also quite tasty. The meal was accompanied by a traditional Chinese music and dance show-- fantastic!
We also went to the largest mosque in China. It uses a pagoda for a minaret.
The Xi'an trip took 4 days during the week long school break for the national holiday (sort of like the American 4th of July), the first week of October. Our tour group consisted of 40 foreign teachers from Sias University. Here are a few of us taking a walk on the 600 year old Xi'an city wall.
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